In a world full of noise, there’s one skill that still matters most when it comes to attracting and retaining customers, and that’s listening. When brands listen, they can hone in on their customers' pain points, focus on what customers want, build a connection, and establish trust.
The result?
The customer creates an affinity for the brand and the brands experience more growth. In fact, according to Gartner’s 2022 CMO Spend and Strategy Survey, marketers who listen to their customers experience 1.6 times more growth.
If you’re ready to start listening, it’s important to consider a customer-centric marketing journey.
What Is Customer-Centric Marketing?
Simply put, it’s a practice that focuses on individual customers and customer segments (demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral) while also analyzing data to create marketing campaigns that:
Build awareness
Establish trust
Improve satisfaction
Create loyal relationships
According to a 2023 study by The Future of Commerce, 71% of consumers expect personalized services and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive it. This study highlights the growing need for customer-centric marketing to cut through the noise and deliver what your customers want and need.
You might be thinking: What are some customer-centric brands out there now? Starbucks, Netflix, Amazon, and Wayfair are just a few that listen to the customer first.
Have you ever wondered how Netflix knows what to recommend for you based on your viewing habits? Have you ever thought how amazing it is when they recommend something for you that really hits the spot? What about how Starbucks knows to send you a message about all things pumpkin spice before the first leaf changes color?
That’s customer-centric marketing for you.
Interested in crafting a customer-centric marketing journey? You will need to:
Listen to what the data tells you. From demographic and competitive data to customer feedback and market research, it is important to consider the story the numbers tell. Once that story is deciphered, you’ll better understand more of how your customers think and feel, and what you can do to meet their needs, address their pain points, and begin to build their trust.
Build out customer personas, identify the journey they’ll take, and establish touchpoints along their journey. Without fully understanding who you’re crafting this journey for and how you’ll interact with customers throughout each point along their journey, it will be difficult to ensure customers have a smooth transition from awareness to loyalty. Be sure to conduct research through surveys, interviews, and focus groups to look for common characteristics, behaviors, and pain points among your customers. You will also want to create a customer journey map to show each touchpoint along the customer’s path, which allows you to document what actions the customers take at each stage.
Make it personal. Personalizing content to ensure your audience sees content, messages, offers, and recommendations built for them. This helps them feel seen, understood, and supported by your brand. Website visitor tracking and email marketing platforms can help support these efforts to tailor materials down to the individual.
Show customers you understand their needs. Create a customer-centric value proposition that shows you understand their challenges and how you can mitigate those challenges with your product or service.
Make sure employees are bought in. Employees work with clients every day— that’s why they need to understand why it is important to listen to clients and how that impacts the services the company provides for them. They should be able to explain why the company offers customer-centric options and the goals of doing so (retaining clients, building loyalty, creating advocates).
Monitor and improve. Keep moving forward by looking at the data and ensuring your customers are moving from awareness to loyalty. Listening to the data means you will tap into what your net promoter score is (which should tell you how likely it is your customers will recommend you business to others), uncover your customer lifetime value to see the total revenue your business can expect from a single customer, and your customer satisfaction score stays high (you can typically collect this information via surveys).
If you’re ready to listen, you’re ready to begin your customer-centric marketing journey. Get in touch to learn more!
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